Train coupling device



Feb. 17, 194;.

, E; H. PIRON 2,273,621

TRAIN COUPLING DEVICE Filed March 15, 1939 INVENTOR. 2717/7 P/rarzATTORNEY Patented Feb. 17, 1942 UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE mum r 1 TBACOUPLING DEVICE of New York Application March 15, ms, Serial No. 202,05440mm. ((1213-75) This invention relates to train coupling means and hasfor its object to provide for stabilization of the cars against rollingmotions by the action of one car on another, to provide for thebalancing of centrifugal force with respect to the action of gravityboth with respect to the cars and passengers within the cars whenpassing around a curve, and to increase the collision resistance of thecars. I i

The normal standing position of a passenger in a train passing around acurve is a position at an angle to the horizontal such that the actionof gravity balances the centrifugal force. In conventional railwaypractice this condition is recognized and in view thereof the outer railis elevated at curves, and the amount of elevation is calculatedaccording to the radius of the curve and the speed at which trains areintended to travel around the curve. If these two factors are known, andconstant. the outer rail elevation centrifugal force, inasmuch as theamount which gravity must be unbalanced to compensate therefor may beaccurately determined. However, the

outer rail elevation must be such that trains may This" invention hasfor an object to prevent outward tilting of the car bodies in thepresence of a centrifugal force, and to cause inward tilting I thereofin the event such tilting is desirable or necessary to balancecentrifugal force with the action of gravity. To this end, the cars ofthe train are coupled together by similar yielding a may be calculatedto exactly compensate for couplers,being normally shorter, keep theplatform couplers in compression and the platform couplers beingnormallylonger, keep the roof couplers in tension. when the cars are at an angleto each other. as whenthey are passing over a curved track, the tensionforces which normally are in line are moved out of line and set up aforce component which is directed toward the center of the curve, andwhich tends to move the roof portions inwardly toward the center of thecurv By varying the pre-compression and pre-iension conditions of theplatform and roof couplers the component force may be varied to suitdifferent requirements. The component force may be such as to exactlycounteract centrifugal force and to thereby prevent tilting outwardlyorit may be such as to cause tilting of the car bodies inwardly towardthe center of the the train. With resilientlyyieldable couplers soarranged at the roof and at the platform that the roof couplers areunder tension and the platform couplers under compression where thereare no other longitudinal forcesacting on the train, the roof couplersprings can be so pro- T portioned to the platform springs that thetencouplers located at the roof level and at the platform, with the roofcouplerabeing shorter in length than the platform couplers. when thecars are coupled together, by pushing one against another in the usualmanner, all couplers are collapsed, with the platform couplers beingcollapsed to a greater extent than the roof couplers because they arelonger. Once the coupling is completed, and the car brakes are releasedthe yielding couplers tend to return to their normal position, but beingprevented from doing so because the cars are coupled togethen'they moveto an intermediate position or to a position of equilibrium between thefree position of the roof coupler and the platform coupler. The roofsion which is normally present in the roof couplers is replaced by acompression as soon as the coupling system collapses under the action oflongitudinal forces caused by end collisions and that the-compressionthus developed in both roof and platform couplers is then proportionalor about proportional to the collision or bull. resistance of therespective roof and platform structures.

Another object of the invention is to provide coupling means which makespossible a material weight reduction, thus making stabilization of thecar bodies against rolling motion and the reduction in the amplitude ofthe leaning over under the action of centrifugal forces on curves moreeasily attainable, as well as the numerous other advantages resultingfrom the elimination of unnecessary weight. In this respect, attentionis directed to the factors which ordinarily preclude further weightreductions of any great importance with the present day design of light,

streamlinedtrains. V The design of the conventional streamlined natesthe drag links slidable rail car is such that vertical and lateral loadsare resisted by thebody and the center sill, while the longitudinalforces are practically entirely resisted by the center sill. The lattercondition results from the fact that the coupler draw bars are in linewith the sill and remote from the neutral axis of the car body which asfar as resistance is concerned functions mostly in the nature of astiffener for opposing buckling of the center sill. Although thelongitudinal forces in service are relatively small, they may reach, acecidentally, very great values, especially in the case of collisions, andin the safeguarding of passengers thecenter sill must be designed towithstand the higher forces. The center sill must, therefore, becomparatively heavy.

It is evident that if the center sill were located in the neutral axisof the body, the whole body could be designed to function in resistinglongitudinal forces, with the result that a. material weight reductioncould be obtained. This is not possible, because the space around theneutral axis is required for passenger service, and this invention hasas a further object to teach another manner of obtaining Just assatisfactory a. solution.

The usual roof construction, because of its curved section, is aninherently strong longitudinal member, and no difllculty is encounteredin constructing the roof to incorporate nearly half the bufilng strengthof the car without adding materially to the weight of the roof. Then, byproviding couplers both at the roof and the center sill. nearly one halfof the longitudinal forces may be transmitted through theroof-construction, with the result that the center sill need only belittle more than half as strong and half as heavy as ordinarily is thecase.

The platform or center sill couplers are not capable of preventingrolling of the car bodies because their location is near the center ofrolling motion, whereas the roof couplers, being located where theamplitude of rolling motion is maximum, utilize the action of one carbody on' the other to oppose rolling, because in general the mainrolling motions of one car body are not in synchronism with those of theadjoining car bodies. By the provision of longitudinal elasticity suchthat it requires a great effort to lengthen the roof couplers,resistance to the rolling'or leaning of connected car bodies is created,and when the car bodies pass a curve at high speed the resistancecreating means sets up a force tending to cause leaning inwardly of thecurve. I

Other objects and advantages will become more fully apparent asreference is had to the accompanying drawings wherein my invention isillus-' trated,- and in which:

Fig. l is a side elevation of a train,

Fig. 2 is a plan of the train on a curve,

Fig. 3 is a diagram used for purposes of ex-. planation,

Fig. 4 is a plan plers, and

Fig. 5 is a plan of a set of platform couplers.

The cars I of the train illustrated are equipped of a set of separatedroof couwith standard couplers 2 at the roof level and 3 at the platformlevel.

with similar couplers The construction of the couplersisdiagrammatically illustrated in Figs. 4 and 5 wherein 4 desigwithrespect to supporting members 5 attached to the car bodies, andyieldingly held against movement in either direction by springs 6 and 1which are compressed between the members 5 and fixed abutments I on thedraft bars 4.

Although identical in construction, th platform couplers 3 arelongerthan the roof couplers 2, as may be seen by comparison of Figs. 4 and 5which show the relative uncoupled positions of the roof and platformcouplers. It becomes apparent,-therefore, that when the several cars arecoupled together, as illustrated in Figs. 1 and 2, the roof couplers areplaced in tension and the platform couplers are maintained incompression. It is obvious that a similar condition may be obtained byusing properly selected spring characteristics that are different in thetwo systems of couplers.

In Fig. 3 the line A-B represents the horizontal plane of the floor of acar during normal or straight line movement. If the floor remains inthis plane during movement through a curve, the normal standing positionof a passenger changes from vertical to an angle with respect to thehorizontal plane A-B, which angle is such that gravity balances thecentrifugal force, for example, the angle indicated by the lines A-B-C.When the outer rail is elevated. as pointed out in the preamble, thefloor of the car is tilted and takes an angular position such asindicated by the line D--B, and if the speed of the train is exactlycorrelated with elevation of the outer rail and the radius of the curve,the passenger position will be perpendicular to the floor, as indicatedby the line E-B, which is perpendicular to the line D-B.

With the speed factor ordinarily less than that of the higher speedtrains, in order to accommodate low speed trains, the condition as faras the standing position of a passenger is concerned is similar to thatrepresented by the lines A--B and 3-0, for the reason that theangularity of the floor must increase proportionally with thecentrifugal force, which increases with increasing speed- However, ifthe train speed exceeds the chosen speed at the curve, centrifugal forcealso acts to tilt the car bodies outwardly, with the dition indicated bylines A-B and BC. In

other words, although elevation of the outside rail improves conditions,it does not correct the conditions sought to be corrected in the case ofa train exceeding the chosen speed because if the outer rail elevationis not suflicient the action is the same, only not so extreme, as if noouter rail elevation were present.

Correction of the undesirable conditions above referred to is obtainedby provision of couplers at the roof and platform, with the roofcouplers maintained in tension by the platform couplers. The result ofsuch an arrangement is illustrated in Fig. 2, which shows the cars on acurved track and, therefore, angularly related. In such a case thetension forces O-E and O-F exerted between two cars at the roof levelare not in .line and the two opposing forces have a. component O-G whichis directed toward the center of the curve, and which causes inwardtilting of the car bodies. By predetermining the tension in the roofcouplers any predetermined centrifugal force may be balanced by gravity.

The provision of couplers at the roof and the platform increasescollision resistance by utilization of the roof structure and the floorand underframe construction, instead of just the floor uted on the floorand underframe structure so that the roof resistance becomesaugmentative, thus making material lightening of the underframestructure possible.

What is claimed is: 1. A rail car having a pair of couplers at oppositeends thereof, one coupler of each of said pairs being located adjacentthe platform of the car and the other coupler of each pair being locatedadjacent the roof thereof, all of said couplers being resilientlymounted, the roof couplers projecting a shorter distance from the endsof cars than the platform couplers whereby the roof couplers areautomatically placed in tension when two cars are coupled together.

2. A rail car having a pair of couplers at opposite ends thereof, onecoupler of each of said pairs being located adjacent the platform andthe other coupler of each of said pairs being locatedadjacent the roofthereof, all of said couplers being resiliently mounted, and theplatform couplers projecting from the ends of the cars a distancegreater than the roof couplers whereby the platform couplers areautomatically placed in compression when two cars are coupled together.i

3. In combination, a plurality of rail cars, resiliently supportedcouplers located at both the platforms and the roofs of said cars, saidresiliently supported couplers being so related with respect to eachother and with respect to the cars that the coupling of two carstogether automatically places the platform coupler in compression andthe roof coupler in tension, said platform coupler being capable ofcompressing in the presence of extrinsic forces tending to move saidcars together to an extent such that the roof coupler also acts incompression to resist said last named forces.

4. In combination, a plurality of rail cars, resiliently supportedcouplers located at both the platforms and the roofs of said cars, saidresiliently supported couplers being so related with respect to eachother and with respect to the cars that the coupling of two carstogether automatically places the'roof coupler in tension and theplatform coupler in compression, said roof coupler being capable ofelongating in the presence of extrinsic forces'tending to separate thecars to an extent such that the platform coupler also acts in tension toresist such forces, and said platform coupler being capable ofcompression in the presence of extrinsic forces tending to movesaid carstogether to an extent such that the roof coupler also acts incompression to resist such last named forces.

EMIL H. PIRON.

